Authors

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

School

School of Arts and Humanities/Office of the Vice-Chancellor

RAS ID

20608

Comments

Originally published as: Patterson, L. J., Allan, A., & Cross, D. (2016). Adolescent bystander behaviour in the school and online environments and the implications for interventions targeting cyberbullying. Journal of School Violence, doi:10.1080/15388220.2016.1143835. Original article available here.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to add to the emerging knowledge about the role of bystanders in cyberbullying. To differentiate online versus offline bystander behaviours, 292 Australian children (mean age=15.2y; female=54.4%) reviewed hypothetical scenarios experimentally manipulated by bystander sex, relationship to target and perpetrator; and severity of bullying incident. In both environments, bystander helping behaviours were more likely when the target was a close friend, perceived harm to the target was high, and when bystanders were female. Bystanders also reported being less likely to approach teachers or publicly defend targets in online versus offline environments. This suggests programs designed to encourage positive bystander behaviours online can be similar to face-to-face approaches but need to recognise some aspects unique to the online environment